The Pinnacle

by Gary Moreau

  Casey felt weary, tired of trying to put the pieces together. Yamaguchi nudged him again, this time with more force.

  “Okay, okay...I hesitate to tell you what I think. It seems so unbelievable, even to me.”

  “What is real?” Yamaguchi asked.

  “What indeed?” Casey mused. “I have two pieces of information that both say the same thing. The evidence indicates that we have not been in stasis for a hundred years, but rather, for thousands of years. I am convinced this is reality and, if so, how did we arrive at our destination?”

  “At whose destination?” Yamaguchi asked.

  Casey looked up and met the man’s obsidian eyes, opaque to interpretation.

  “I don’t know what you’re suggesting,” Casey said, “but if you’re implying that the World Space Agency selected a new destination, many more light years from Earth, I cannot agree. That’s so improbable, it’s impossible. Maybe we arrived on time and then remained in orbit for thousands of years but, if that’s the case, then how did we finally awaken and why weren’t there additional expeditions from Earth? I just don’t know. What do you think?”

  Yamaguchi took hold of Casey’s arm, more gently this time. “Come. It’s time for your meeting with Commander Slater.”

  “A minute please. I need you to contact Lisa Bouviet. I don’t think Veck will let me do it. It’s important. Please.”

  Yamaguchi touched his collar. “Veck, this is Yamaguchi. Connect me with Lisa Bouviet.”

  Casey couldn’t hear the directed response of Yamaguchi’s collar.

  “Yes, I have him,” Yamaguchi said and, after a brief pause, “I will bring him now.” He turned his attention to Casey. “Lisa Bouviet’s collar is off line.”

  “She’s probably at the Comp-Dome, right across the yard. It would only take a moment.”

  “I am to take you to Slater’s office now.”

  “But, Lisa said she would help if I got into trouble because of her gazette.”

  “Lisa Bouviet?”

  Casey sighed. How stupid.

  “Now.”

  Casey nodded, resigned. Yamaguchi assisted him to his feet and Casey shuffled along beside him. There was no way this was going to be pleasant.

  When they arrived at Slater’s office, the portal swished open and revealed Slater, who was sitting at his desk. He looked up. “Come in, Casey,” he said softly.

  Visions of being caught in a web sprang into Casey’s mind. For a moment, he seemed to remember being attacked by a big black spider, but then the memory was gone.

  It was impossible to ignore Jack Sabine who was leaning against the bulkhead. Sabine’s smile revealed canines that looked too long and too sharp. He was a predator and couldn’t have appeared more eager to get his hands on Casey than if he had actually been licking and smacking his lips.

  “Sit down, Casey,” Slater said.

  “I’d rather stand.”

  “Sit down!” Slater ordered.

  Sabine pushed away from the bulkhead.

  “All right,” Casey said, and sat in the chair, but did not lean back.

  Slater folded his hands and rested them on his desktop. He began with quiet, well-spaced words. “I’ve encountered a serious problem today and I know you’re the cause. You and a certain nymphomaniac named Lisa Bouviet. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”

  “I’m sorry, Commander Slater,” Casey replied respectfully. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”

  Without warning Casey was slugged on the side of his head. It made tears come to his eyes and caused a burning pain to spread across that side of his face. His hearing in that ear was replaced by a high-pitched ringing. He pulled his head down between his shoulders and looked in the direction the blow had come from, into the smiling face of Jack Sabine.

  Slater continued in a steady tone. “I thought you were smarter than that. You behaved yourself quite well after we had that brief discussion in orbit, at least for a while. Did you forget?”

  Casey began to shake his head, but was overcome by waves of nausea. He was instantly soaking with sweat. He touched his fingers to his injured ear and came away with blood.

  “Some people need to be reminded from time to time. I guess you’re one of those people. The next time you consider doing something that you think I might disapprove of, take a moment and remember and, Casey, don’t ever remove your collar again.”

  “Please, Commander Slater. I didn’t take off my collar. I didn’t do anything. I wasn’t even in the ship. You can ask Mister Olsen. Please, ask him.”

  Slater nodded to Sabine.

  “I’m telling the truth!” Casey yelled.

  Sabine pulled on Casey’s left arm until it was fully extended. Casey tried to pull away, but Sabine was too strong, wiry strong. Casey watched speechless with horror as Sabine pried out his thumb and pulled it back until it snapped audibly and protruded at a queer angle from his hand.

  Casey heard himself beg, he was willing to do anything, to offer anything, but Slater only smiled, and nodded to Sabine again. One by one, Sabine broke the fingers on Casey’s left hand.

  Casey screamed. There was unbearable pain and then it became something else. The color faded from his vision and then his field of vision shrank, until it was a tunnel with Sabine’s face at the other end, and then there was nothing.

  Slater motioned with a flick of his hand for Yamaguchi to remove Casey from his cubicle. Yamaguchi gathered up the limp form and carried him down to the medical suite, where he placed him with care on his sleeping pallet.

  When Casey awakened, he was alone. He had a pounding headache and throbbing pain in his hand. The light seemed painfully bright, but he managed to produce an analgesic disk out of the synthesizer. He waited for pain relief before raising his head to inspect his hand; it was a swollen ball of flesh, purple with bruising. His fingers extended oddly from his hand, like crooked sticks. He was exhausted.

  He reflected about himself as a person and judged himself lacking. He found cowardice. He remembered begging, pleading with Slater, offering his soul, surrendering every shred of pride. He hated Slater, but underlying that hate was fear, fear that Slater would inflict still more pain.

  Chapter 20

  It was four days before the swelling had subsided to the point that he could reduce the dislocations and fractures. He anesthetized his hand by using a depolarizing ring around his forearm and, after aligning the bones, immobilized his hand in a glove of firm-foam.

  The pain persisted, but gradually required less potent analgesic disks. He learned how to manage his daily needs with one hand, rather than commit himself to a day of unconsciousness in the speed-healer; there was no one he could trust to watch over him.

  For the next two weeks Casey stayed in or near the medical suite, not feeling well enough about himself to face others. He didn’t believe he’d be able to tolerate their anger. His only contact with the outside was his copy of the “Eden Gazette”, surreptitiously left outside his portal each morning.

  The day he finally ventured out was a special day. He had read about it in the “Gazette”. The bio-techs had succeeded in reviving the first of the animal species to join humanity on the new world. It was appropriate that mankind’s oldest friend in the animal kingdom would be the first. The occasion was Dog Day. Casey had read that two breeds were to be presented, the Miniature Schnauzer and the German Shepherd.

  When he entered the Storage Deck, he paused to look around and was relieved to find that no one else was there. He approached the sunlit doorway of the ramp with care and stopped just inside, using the edge of the doorway to partially conceal himself.

  The Bio-Dome was just to the right of the main bubble and that morning it was the center of activity. A large crowd of colonists milled about, a rainbow of jumpsuits, representing all branches of the colony. The loud conversation and laughter carried easily to Casey’s hiding place and reinforced the festive atmosphere of that bright, sunny morning. He felt a strong
desire to be with them, to be one of them, but he was beginning to believe that would never happen. His gaze dropped to the gray of the ramp as he thought bitterly about what he had given up for these youngsters and what they had given him in return.

  Casey looked up as a cheer arose. A figure dressed in the chocolate-brown of a bio-tech appeared in the entryway of the dome, holding a furry, squirming bundle under each arm. Above the buzz of the crowd, Casey could hear the high-pitched yelp of a puppy. The bio-tech carefully held his precious bundles aloft, one light gray and the other with tan legs and a dark face. The crowd responded enthusiastically, cheering and clapping.

  Casey turned away from the joyous scene. He could no longer tolerate watching without being a part of it. He retraced his steps back to the medical suite. When he entered the lab, he stopped. There stood Padraig Glancy, smiling and leaning nonchalantly against the work counter, book in hand.

  “Doctor Conklin, how nice of you to join me this fine morning,” he said cheerfully.

  “What do you want?” Casey replied gruffly.

  “Your star protégé has returned to learn at the master’s side.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  Casey tested Glancy’s depth of knowledge and understanding and had to admit that the man had done a respectable job of learning the material in an astonishingly short period of time. Despite himself, Casey became interested in the prospect of training Glancy. The rest of the morning passed quickly and, when Glancy tipped his hand in a mock salute as he left, Casey was unable to muster any honest irritation. He might even have allowed a smile to escape.

  As the day wore on, Casey received a second unexpected visitor. Having just finished a meal, prepared on his small reconstitutor, he was sitting on his pallet when he heard the swish of his portal and glanced up to see Yamaguchi.

  “Hello, friend, and I do use the term loosely,” Casey said.

  In answer, Yamaguchi reached into his pouch and withdrew a ball of active gray fur. He held the frisky puppy out toward Casey.

  Casey looked into the Yamaguchi’s still unreadable face, although it was now marked with easily visible lines, and tried to get a sense of the man. A man who would stand by and watch another be tortured without interference and, yet, a man who could see Casey’s desperate need for companionship and respond to it. It didn’t make any sense.

  Casey reached out with his good hand to take the puppy and hold it against his chest. At first it tried to wriggle free, but then it curled up against his body heat and became still.

  “Thank you,” Casey said. “I––” His voice caught, filled with unexpressed emotion. It seemed to Casey that he saw a hint of a smile on Yamaguchi’s face before he turned to leave. Casey looked down at the puppy nestled in his lap and began stroking the soft fur.

  Chapter 21

  The next week was one of healing for Casey; he began to recover from both the mental and physical trauma. The mornings were spent with his pupil, who was proving himself to be especially adept. The afternoons were spent in mindless relaxation as the puppy and he forged a bond of mutual affection. Casey named his dog Marta, after his mentor back on Earth, Doctor Marta Barken. He didn’t think she would’ve minded, if she were here, instead of back on Earth and long dead. Casey sighed. Britty and Doctor Marten. He wished they were with him now. He thought about them while he stroked the luxurious fur of the puppy.

  By the end of the week he had begun to once again venture into the community, but it was on an impulse that he decided to take his evening meal with the others in the Main Dome. He carried his puppy in his pouch until he arrived at the Storage Deck and then put her down. She ran around in circles, a fuzzy ball of energy. Marta followed Casey as far as the light-stick lit ramp and ran back and forth across the opening, but she would go no farther. It was with some reluctance that Casey continued across the yard, hearing Marta barking out her objection at being left behind, but he decided that it was just as well the dog didn’t accompany him; he expected it to be crowded in the dome.

  While he walked, he thought about the difficulty he was having enticing Marta out of the ship. When he set her on the ground she would shiver and shake, her eyes turned upward in supplication while her ears and tail drooped. The thought slipped from his mind as he walked up the ramp of the Main Dome and was met by two orange-suited mech-techs. When they saw him, they stopped talking, moved as far to the side as possible, and then walked past without speaking. Casey scowled at their backs and pushed ahead, through the air curtain and into the interior.

  The dome was noisy with loud conversation and boisterous laughter. Casey almost turned around and left, but then decided he was through running. He forced himself to pick up his meal and walked the perimeter of the dome without drawing much attention. He found a small, empty table at the rear of the dome and sat with his back to the wall, so he could watch the colonists enjoying themselves and imagine he was one of them. It was a difficult fantasy to maintain; soon after he took his place, the colonists sitting at the tables around him began to pick up their trays and move away. It was not long until he found himself sitting alone, amidst empty chairs and tables in an otherwise crowded room. There were a few dogs present, but Casey was glad he had left Marta behind.

  The colors appeared to be mixing more and it seemed to Casey that there was a lot of hugging and even less subtle sexual activity. He spotted the yellow-blond hair of Lisa Bouviet and next to her the unmistakable profile of Aleksandr Protonov, both in comp-tech gray. They were leaning heavily on one another. He was offended and amazed when he saw Protonov reach inside Lisa’s jumper and fondle her breasts, in plain view of the others at the table who were laughing uproariously.

  Casey was disgusted by such immodest behavior. He was outraged that Lisa would allow such an obvious sexual advance in public and, even though he couldn’t admit it, he was jealous as well. He stared at them and saw Lisa was touching Protonov under the table. He couldn’t bear to watch, but as he looked around the room, he saw that Lisa and Protonov were not alone in their outrageous behavior.

  Fewer women than men had survived what had become known as the Death Sleep, so many of the women had more than one male competing for their attention. They were all so young, so virile, and so undisciplined, that it made Casey feel sick. It’s possible he might have felt differently if he could’ve joined them, but there was little chance of that.

  Without thinking, he suddenly stood, knocking his chair over, and then threw his tray on the floor so that it clattered loudly. Like a ripple across a pond, most of the less deeply involved colonists turned to see what had happened. The room became noticeably quieter while Casey walked through the middle of the dome, his anger and disdain evident on his face.

  Perhaps to demonstrate their manliness, a group of male colonists formed a semi-circle in front of Casey’s path. They stood there breathing deeply, with wild energy in their eyes. Casey could see they were only posturing for the females, but he could also see it was to be at his expense.

  A small man with black, curly hair and deep brown eyes was the first to speak. He was dressed in the yellow of a chemo-tech. Casey knew his name, Giuseppe Marciano. He knew them all.

  “You are scum,” Giuseppe began. “You killed our friends and got away with it and you wiped our computers and got away with it. It’s time you pay the price. Commander Slater has been protecting you, but I’m not afraid of Slater.”

  “Me either,” said another in a loud voice and stepped forward.

  By this time the entire room was watching, some colonists standing on tables to get a better view, and the young men knew it.

  Another man, not to be outdone, stepped forward. “You’re not welcome here. Murderer!” he yelled.

  The others took up the word. “Murderer, Murderer, Murderer!”

  None of the young males wanted to be excluded, each elbowing the other aside to become more visible.

  Casey began to back up but discovered he was completely surrounded. He turned
in a circle. There wasn't enough air! He couldn't breathe! An agri-tech spat at him; the viscous glob landed on his cheek and ran slowly down to his chin. Casey was shocked. It was Jon Brent, with hate in his eyes.

  They began pelting Casey with food, throwing it as hard as they could, from no more than an arm’s length away, and then cheering each other on. Casey brought up his uninjured hand to protect his face. He backed up against a body and was shoved violently forward, coming up hard against a well-muscled lad in the maroon of the humanities. The man put his fingers under Casey’s jaw and with painful pressure lifted Casey’s face, held it there for a grinning moment, and smashed his fist into Casey’s mouth, sending him sprawling onto his back.

  Casey was dazed, not sure which way was up. The metallic taste of blood was flooding his mouth. He heard the hooting and yelling, but couldn’t make out any of the words. He tried desperately to get to his feet, but couldn’t find his balance and fell back to the floor. He didn’t see his assailant jerked aside and was confused as to his whereabouts when Yamaguchi lifted him off the garbage-strewn floor.

  Yamaguchi carried him back into the ship without interference and laid him on his pallet in the medical lab. Casey was awake, but dull-witted. His puppy whined and licked his face, but he only responded with a dazed look. After a short while, he fell into a fitful sleep interrupted by unconscious moaning.

  Chapter 22

  When Casey awakened the next morning, he was groggy. He lay there for a moment, aware of a bundle of warmth curled up against side. Slowly, his mind pieced together the fragmentary memory of the night before until it had meaning.

  He tried to turn over and his puppy hopped out of the way, but his entire body was stiff and he slumped back against the pallet. It was not long after that Casey heard his portal open. He tried to move, as if he were one inflexible piece, cringing within, fearful of yet another attack, but relaxed when he heard Glancy’s voice.